INSIDE THE SERIES.

Braves May Use 5 Starters

NEW YORK — Atlanta manager Bobby Cox wasn't thinking that far ahead, but the possibility exists that the Nor'easter that has engulfed New York this weekend could force back-to-back rainouts.

If that happens, baseball must decide whether to add an unscheduled day off or play consecutive games for the entire series. And if the first five games are played with no days off, Atlanta has the opportunity to throw five different starters against the Yankees: John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Denny Neagle and either Steve Avery or Mike Bielecki.

Asked if he had considered using a fifth starter in such a scenario, Cox replied: "I can't really answer that. It would depend on how tough a ballgame the (Game 1) pitcher had if he had to pitch on three days' rest (in Game 5). This time of year, you've got guys who have racked up 275 innings. We'd consider that."

Cox said Avery or Bielecki would be the probable fifth starter if he chose that route.

Book it: Yankee power pitchers Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland make up the perfect relief combination. Rivera usually stops the opposition in the seventh and eight innings, and Wetteland comes in to clean up in the ninth. The Yankees are 88-1 when leading after eight innings, and 32-3 in games in which those two relievers both appear.

After Rivera won two games in relief against Minnesota this year, Twins manager Tom Kelly remarked: "That kid throws too hard for us. He's too good for this league. I say we ban him from baseball."

Rivera will probably be one of the top closers in the game soon, especially with Wetteland's tutelage. But Wetteland insists he has learned more from Rivera than the second-year pitcher has learned from him.

"We talked quite a bit early in the year about the kind of stuff he has, and how good he is with it," Wetteland said.

"He's able to hit his spots at 95 m.p.h., which is a tremendous asset as a pitcher. He's taken that and run with it. Quite honestly, I've learned more from him as the season went on than vice versa. I see how he pitched to a lot of hitters. Sometimes I get into a funk here, and I don't think my fastball can get anyone out, but I'll watch him pitch a particular hitter a certain way and I go at him the same way, and it works. It's symbiotic."

Series bits: Don Mattingly has turned down the Yankees' request that he throw out the first ball before Game 2, saying he did not want to be a distraction. . . . Umpires for the Series will be Jim Evans, Tim Welke and Larry Young representing the American League and Terry Tata, Steve Ripley and Gerry Davis representing the National League. . . . The latest date ever for Game 1 of the World Series was Oct. 21, set last year.